HERE'S A RIDDLE FOR YOU

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The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.
2 Timothy 2:11‭-‬13 ESV

¶The saying Paul inserts here in this letter to Timothy reads like a paradoxical riddle, even somewhat like a Zen koan Buddhists might use to challenge our logical categories and promote "enlightenment". Here it is: If our denial of Christ would provoke His denial of us, then how does our faithlessness elicit not His denial, but His faithfulness? That might just throw a wrench into our rational gearbox. It points to something entirely outside of ourselves, to the covenant made with God on our behalf, not between us and God, but forged within the Trinity, between Father and Son, that the Son might have all those whom the Father had given Him, a promise of eternal life to all who receive it. God knows all things, and even if our faithless hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, never to deny the reward that He promised to His Son on behalf of those who receive it. Not I, but Christ now live, and the life I now live, I live not by by my faithfulness, but by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

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